Much has been written during the last few weeks of what is practically the rebirth of Napier, the splendidly successful effort of reconstruction after the double disaster of earth-quake and fire, and of the resolution and courage displayed by the people of Hawke's Bay in their endeavours to overcome the trouble with which the powers of Nature afflicted them. Headed by His Excellency the Governor, the citizens of New Zealand have united to do honour to the plucky men and women of the devastated districts who have risen superior to evil Fate and have made their town a better place in some respects than it was before the great misfortune fell upon them. The daily newspapers have told us much of that. Hawke's Bay is at work again more busily than before; time is effacing its scars; skilled scientific building is making its provincial capital safer than before.

Authentic pictures of the past of a country are particularly interesting in such a land as New Zealand, with its adventurous history, a many-coloured story of pioneer life and hazard. Hawke's Bay settlement was not endangered, except on one memorable occasion, by such wars and raids as Taranaki suffered in the Sixties. Nevertheless there was much of the rough end of life in the infancy of the province. The endeavours of the early settlers to turn the wild land to account were necessarily strenuous, and often visited by misfortune. Travel was difficult in that unroaded, unbridged country, where even the Maori population was sparse, except near the coast.